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the-path-to-redemption · 5 months

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Serious question. With the direction of RWBY going doing you think their is some favoritism over the female villains than male villains?

Exhibit A: Adam and Ironwood treated badly even though they have justified motives.

Adam being an extremist with how mistreatment of Fanus, being a product of child slavery by a white privilege company, and joined WF that is equivalent to any modern radical group fighting for rights (Black Panthers). Got reduce to "crazy stalker bf, disregarded his fellow fanus comrades, became power hungry for no reason, and what he was suppose to be got dumped on Ilia".

Ironwood a dignified and selfless military leader. Willing to help team RWBY with anything, risked his life to evacuated the citizens when Becaon got under attack, and gave team RWBY extra training with a senior group that put his trust in him and vice versa. Got reduce to a "liar, manipulator, disingenuous, child shooter" even though he gave RWBY man signs to put his trust on him and the situation in Mantel could've ended differently.

Exhibit B: (Bit bias cause I really hate Cinder and wish the worse for her and I hope you get betrayed by Salem). When compare to Salem, Neo, and Cinder.

Salem the first women with magic and was locked in a tower Rapunzel style. Barging with the brothers to resurrected Ozpin and discovered the see humans as playthings and wanted to change the cycle. Started to get a little power hungry and when she found out Ozpin betrayed she tried to kill him AND ALSO KILLED HER DAUGHTERS WITH NO REMORSE. Responsible for the destruction of Mantel and Beacon and the deaths of civilians. Torture and manipulate Cinder to do her bidding knowing Cinder is disposable. Uses people with Silver Eyes as weapons.

Cinder a product of child slavery and trafficking. Abuse by her elder sisters and mother. Eventually killed out of revenge and killed her mentor and the only person that cared for her. Threatened Adam to join Salem or else she killed the Fanus. Was responsible for the death of Penny TWICE. Throws a tantrum when things don't do her way and gets owned by Watts. Betrays Neo to get the lamp to get her praise by Salem when next volume Salwm will torture her again for her handling of Mantle.

Neo is the partner in crime with Roman. Manipulate by Cinder to kill Ruby when in reality Cinder is really at fault since she hired them. Emotionally Manipulates Ruby in her weakest state to commit sucide and use her deceased friends to her advantage. Realize that her whole goal of revenge is pointless and she never think this through. Get used as a puppet by the cat forcing her to talk. Gets her happy ending and stay in wonderland.

Tell me out of the two groups who gets love by the fandom and which gets hate?

I just think that RT is bad at writing for this show-

Long Post Ahead

For the writer's side on this, it's clear that they simply do not know how to process the nuances of morally gray characters like Ironwood, that's why he was straight up villainized by them. As for Adam, it's just because they're racist. That's it.

The nuances of both of these characters were beyond the scope of understanding that CRWBY were willing to explore, or else they will be confronted with the fact that they're racist as fuck, and their stupid fucking pride about being rightfully criticized prevents this show from actually improving. People wanted Blake and Ruby to talk? Ham-fist it in. People want the criticism about how the world of Remnant was written to be heard? Let's have this cat character mock them via sarcastic inquiries about said critiques on said world.

As for the FNDM? Yeah, there is a blatant disconnect when it comes to atrocities committed by female villains versus male villains in the fans to the point that it treks into full-on bigotry at times.

This isn't to say that the writers didn't fuck up on both, oh no. Salem is a boring ass main villain, James got fucked over, Cinder is a nuisance, and Adam got butchered. All of their villains aside from Tyrian and Watts suck ass, and Watts also got killed off! By Cinder!

But the FNDM has a habit of disregarding abuse when it's a male character being abused by his female confidante (Ozma, Sun, Ren, and Whitley), but are willing to completely demonize a morally gray male character like James in V7 when he would not agree with Ruby's plan. WHICH IS COMPLETELY FINE IN A WRITING STAND POINT.

The RWBY FNDM, to me, has been dragged along by a shitty lie made by RT that "this show is a feminist show because it has female main characters" and are now desperately trying to keep up that lie themselves, even though RWBY has stopped being about the girls for a while now. There is no passion behind their characters, it's all for Jaune. But admitting that will mean admitting RWBY is bad and not feminist, so they lash out at people who rightfully criticize the show and demonize the characters they don't like despite their reasons being stupid as hell.

I've seen people making ableist fucking comments to James, denying that Adam was a slave, and calling Ozpin a groomer. These same people would woobify Cinder, Salem or Neo all the while, even though all of these characters has all done terrible things to our protagonists. Keep up the same energy for both or stfu.

Sorry for the rant. This is just a topic that I really despise because people would act like rabid hyenas, which will turn into harassment which is something I do not want on my blog. But yeah, there is a favortism towards the female villains by the FNDM, but CRWBY hates all of their characters aside from Jaune equally.

#answered #anonymous #rwde #rwby critical #fndm critical #anti rooster teeth

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the-crow-binary · 8 months

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Im quite curious about your opinion on the portrayal of the french revolution; I know it was a super complicated political moment with multiple fronts from the commoners wanting better life conditions, the bourgeoisie wanting to get the nobility out of the way (which it's part as to why it cant be directly translated into 21'st century american capitalism analogy 🙄), how multiple nobles supported the revolution for moral values despite going against their families interests (bc social class influences but doesnt instantly determines your morals) and that many revolutionary groups supported the independence of Haití (heck, many members of my countries independence participated and almost got beheaded in the resulting mess. And ad hundred and something years later France would try to invade us lol). What im trying to say behind my ramble here (sorry for that lol) its that im sure nfcv made it a slavery bad black ppl vs white ppl american dilemma without getting into the complexity of it and i say this as a foreigner with basic history knowledge, so i do wanna see your take on it

Which portrayal of the French Revolution? 🙃

I swear this very important Historical event that affected not just France but all of continental Europe and is considered as one of the world's biggest events was just used as background for the characters to fight and be racist. The characters keep throwing around the word "revolution" from all sides, but we don't see shit. Maria gives context in the first episode (there's a revolution, they overthrown the monarchy and declared a republic, they arrested the king...), talking to a group of revolutionaries, and from then on the story could've literally taken place in an imaginary country with imaginary politics it would've been the same.

Oh, what am I saying, there IS one thing. Our motto. 🙃"Liberty, equality, fraternity" 🙃 Yeah it has been thrown here and there... Except that it wasn't our official motto yet. We had the notion of liberty and equality, sometimes fraternity, and it was in the middle of other words such as "friendship", "sincerity", "charity" and "union". There is some people and even some books who used this motto but it was abandoned then taken back later... Just this is a mess lmao but the point is. I cringed everytime the characters screamed "Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!". And while we're on the subject, Richter, at some point, meets three girls during a festival (I suspect one of the girls to be Marianne, who wasn't a real person but the symbol of Liberty) talking about dressing up as Liberty and Equality and Fraternity. And Richter, thinking he is so smart, say that you need to be a man to dress up as Fraternity, because it means "brotherhood" (and the girls go "sisternity then" and don't correct him). Oh, and the writers clearly thought it was very clever too, since later on Annette's teacher (and even the Messiah I think??) will ALSO talk about the motto, saying "liberty, equality, brotherhood". IT DOESN'T MEAN "BROTHERHOOD". I MEAN IT CAN. BUT IN THIS CASE IT MEANS "FRATERNITY". IT'S A TERM TO TALK ABOUT A BOND EXISTING BETWEEN PEOPLE CONSIDERED AS MEMBERS OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. AKA IT CONCERNS EVERYONE. YOU ARE NOT CLEVER, AMERICAN WRITERS.

Also I thought a fucking festival at a time like that where people dress up at the concepts of our not-exactly-official-motto-yet was stupid, and it is. There was no such festival, however, we did have the "cult of the reason". To put it simply: it was a serie of events and civic holidays wich were organized by a group of atheists. In it there WAS an event called "Fete of the Reason"... Where one ACTOR dressed up as Liberty. It was NOT multiple people representing liberty, equality or fraternity.

The fun fact is, the French Revolution was a pretty good occasion for NFCV to promote it's CHURCH BAD mentality. We were taking away the church's power, more people became atheists, anti-christian vandalism and blasphemy was actually encouraged, it was a mess. Paris even ordered to shut down churches at some point, wich did not happen in the end. So yeah, this precise moment, right before the Vendée War, was perfect for the church-haters those writers are. And it ended up just being as bad as the original show, without any nuance... Ok there might be a little bit of nuance because of Mizrak, a guy who served the church and in the end actually team up with Richter and the gang, and it looks like he's there to stay. Emmanuel (the abbott) tries to be complex, but in the end, he is still a God-obsessed man that makes terrible decisions and is not a good representation for the church. So okay, it might be a BIT better than the original show thanks to Mizrak, but it's not saying much.

Another thing. Only the main characters are shown to have a dislike for the church. We don't see ANY of the french people doing anything against the church (but we do hear the church complaining about the revolutionaries, tell don't show y'know), not even talk about it. It's mostly jokes about how haha priests are sexual predators/they can't keep it in their pants (with the occasional "it exploits the people and take their money" line, and by occasionnal I mean once). There IS a few shades thrown at God here and there, honestly I didn't bother remembering the exact lines because they are so cliché and really not that deep. I think Maria is the one complaining the most.

What angers me the most is the lack of ANY ACTION FROM THE FRENCH PEOPLE. It's like nothing is actually happening except vampire killing people and vampire hunting (wich begs the question: WHY bother making it happen during the FRENCH REVOLUTION?). Nocturne literally made the french people the side (oh what am I saying, the BACKGROUND) characters in their OWN REVOLUTION. AND ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS. WHAT THE FUCK. Maria is supposed to be a revolutionary leader but she doesn't lead anyone. We never see anyone do anything outside of the main characters. The french are literal planks, except from those three girls from the festival and villains, they don't even have a voice. At some point the vampire Messiah arrives in town, in plain view, and people are like "OUR SAVIOR IS HERE! OUR DELIVERER!" and I thought the people shouting were vampires, but no, there is humans TOO. ALL TOGETHER. And you have no idea how much I hate that they basically portray the french people as not doing shit and needing someone else to save them 🙃 To do things for them 🙃 And also. That that someone else is not even french themself. 🙃 Even without the Messiah... the revolutionaries we saw were led by Richter (romanian/american/british idk at this point), Annette (Haitian, even if Saint-Domingue was owned by France at the time), Tera (Russian) and, of course, Maria, who's both Russian and French, at least. Those four were doing most of the work while the french people were in their houses cooking baguettes, I guess. And by "work" I mean fighting vampires and night creatures, there was nothing done about the Revolution. Almost like there is NO REASON TO MAKE A CV SHOW ABOUT THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Oh and I just HAVE to talk to you about Saint-Domingue, and the BLACK PEOPLE ARE OPPRESSED theme going on with Annette. And that's when I'll have to take out this magnificent dialogue again:

"Even these french with their high ideas, what do they know about we've suffered? And what do they care? They're building new world, but it won't be freedom, or equality or brotherhood for US"

This is said by Annette's teacher. Worth to note that before that, in episode 3, she also shat on the French revolution and our motto. Basically, the show portray the French Revolution as being one thing and the slaves in Saint-Domingue having their own other revolution. And not just that, it implies that the French did not care about slaves, and that they do not know what suffering is (yeah, people just start revolutions because they feel like it y'know 🙃). And the anti-white dialogues are portrayed as normal and are even applauded, btw. And it is BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLSHIT. MY FUCKING GOD. OH THIS SHOW MAKE ME SO ANGRY.

First off: Only the colonies were pro-slavery. The french pretty much weren't. A "Society of friends of black people" was even created in France in 1788 to fight for the abolition of slavery. People fought for black people's rights during the French Revolution. Books written by black people to join the fight came out. The French Revolution scared the colonies who were very against losing their slaves and it led to Haiti's own revolution (slaves rebelling, killing their owners, burning the plantations... Nocturne at least got that part right). So both revolutions are very closely linked and the slaves might not have rebelled at this point if it wasn't for the French Revolution threatening Saint-Domingue's economics and creating social upheavals.

And what does those shitty american writers remember? BLACK PEOPLE OPPRESSED. BLACK PEOPLE SUFFERED SO MUCH MORE THAN EVERYONE ELSE. LOOK AT THESE POOR BLACK PEOPLE. WHITE PEOPLE ARE SO POWERFUL. THE FRENCH ARE UNGRATEFUL ACTUALLY. BLACK CHARACTER IS RIGHT TO SHIT ON THE WHITE FRENCH WHO DON'T CARE ABOUT THEM.

FUCK.

Oh, and I mentioned the Vendée War earlier... So, fun fact, during the revolution, we have what we call "la Terreur". It's a pretty gruesome period of time during the Revolution that caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people. La Terreur happened from 1793 to 1794. So one year after this first season of Nocturne. 🙃 I'm just saying. It wouldn't surprise me if they used this for season 2. 🙃(I literally do not trust them)

And the vampires... Look the vampires have their own can of worms that I'm not motivated enough to open. I'll just say that, of course, in classic NFCV fashion, the message the show is trying to pass is not subtle at all. They're just evil. All of them. All of the french nobles. Evil evil EVIL EVIL!! NUANCE AND COMPLEXITY ARE FOR PUSSIES.

Also the count of Vaublanc? Annette's ex-owner? This guy existed. And he never owned slaves. He was pretty pro-royalty, at some point he voted against slavery, then later voted in favor of it... but he did not own slaves. But honestly I don't care about that guy much, I just wanted to show that NFCV really doesn't care about nuance. Everything has to be black or white (lol) and that's why we have no human nobility in Nocturne.

Urgh. UUUUUURGH. I SWEAR WATCHING THIS SHOW WAS A PAIN AND THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT THE MORE PAINFUL IT BECOMES. THERE IS SO MUCH GOING ON IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND NFCV IS DOING JACKSHIT WITH IT. I MEAN IT'S SO MUCH FUNNIER TO SHIT ON THE BELMONT CLAN AND SHOW TIDDIES TO MAKE THE FANS HORNY.

So, my opinion on the portrayal of the French Revolution: CREATE YOUR OWN FICTIONAL REVOLUTION NEXT TIME AND LEAVE THE HISTORY OF MY COUNTRY ALONE.

#i'm sorry this show just makes me so ANGRY #FOR SO MANY REASONS #i bet i could find more things to say but i really wanna stop thinking about this shit for now #castlevania nocturne #anti netflixvania

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invested-in-your-future · 6 months

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So are you making Ozpin evil?

IF this is about the rewrite, then what I am doing is writing Raven as someone convinced Ozpin is.

But that's a character thinking that.

Qrow, having the same amount of information as his sister, views Ozpin as, at worst, a neutral necessity.

In the former case, every single event she experiences and every single mistake Ozpin makes ends up reaffirming her beliefs, but it doesn't affect Qrow the same way (even if he has his doubts).

Because the way they parse information available to them is different. They both are different individuals who took different messages from their shared childhoods. Which in turn affects how they view things.

One of the weirder parts of RWBY-proper is how the show uses character statements as factual truth.

In the show, when Ozpin tells about the Maidens, it's not Ozpin telling the story through the lens of his worldview - it's the writers telling the audience about the Maidens. When Raven and Qrow are walking around angry about the whole bird thing, it's not just the characters doing that but the writers telling the audience that the audience should be mad that Ozpin did this (even if it makes no sense). When Blake is horrified at Ilia having beaten up some racists who made fun of literal people dying to slavery - it's not just Blake, but the audience too that writers are indicating should be mad about that. When Hazel rants about how Ozpin is totally shady because somethingsomethingweirdbackstory, it's the writer's cue for the audience to view it that way. And, likewise, if a lead character proclaims Character A is evil, then it's the writer telling the audience that Character A is now evil.

So when the twin gods do the whole "Oh humanity is not worthy of it and you are evil for doing this", it's also the writers telling that to the audience.

There are attempts to not do that, like how Qrow's original relics nonsense barely resembles the truth, but, honestly, I am convinced that is more of the case of the writers not having figured out what the actual backstory of the relics is (they still haven't as they keep flip flopping on Gods too) rather than Qrow having a limited and biased point of view. In fact, in one of the cases where the show does do an unreliable worldbuilding (The Faunus god), the narrative straight up winks at the audience telling them not to believe that story.

That's another issue with character agency - Characters are right because the writers made them say they are.

Does Ruby need to parse her mistakes and change and accept her flaws? No, she doesn't - because her teammates said so to you, the audience. Whether the character's views are flawed or incomplete doesn't even play into that.

This is such a weird way to handle a story built around the idea of fairytales and myths when one of the most fascinating aspects of them in real life is how transformative and interpretative they are, as fiction. People, influenced by experiences(or rumors) of something having happened, pass that information on via either subtext or text. But a story's message can change when passing from one person to another. Different people can interpret things in different ways, picking and choosing what they want - that's literally how religions work after all.

So yeah, characters can have their own biased interpretations of the knowledge available to them. For example, in my version, Yang has built up this whole illusion of Ruby never wavering and always knowing what she wants. For Yang that's the reason/justification why Ruby just up and left her sister in Patch when her life was at her worst - all the while Ruby, at the same time, is on another continent legitimately not knowing what to do with her life and desperately clinging to any semblance of meaning she can find for her journey.

Does Ruby's impression of Summer differ from Yang's or Raven's? Likely, yeah. Does Ruby's perception of Ruby differ from Yang or even Nora's? Yeah.

Same with Ozpin. Knowing the truth different characters are bound to view him in different ways. An existence spanning thousands of years is simply too complicated to boil down to the concept of good and bad. It's just boring to try that. Likewise with Salem, actually.

#rwby #rwde #rwby stuff mine

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weirdo09 · 9 months

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yeah i really don’t understand flowerfang shippers

what the hell makes you think miles would fuck him of all people?!?! and it’s like fucking illegal?!?! but ofc you’d want the black boy to have the lead because he’d be a animal during sex, I just don’t understand

it has to be a racial fetish and pedophila at this point because y’all are writing a/b/o where miguel rape miles like no tomorrow because ‘he just can’t help himself 1!!1!1!1!1!” it just blows my mind how y’all think that shit is ok like a 31 year old with a 15 year old, doesn’t that big of an age gap like bother you?

there’s like no logical way for me to be like “oh this ship is so cute! miguel practically raping miles and impregnating him because he’s just such a pervert 😏🥰🤭” like it just really shocks me, cause y’all say y’all wouldn’t support it in real life and make real life aus and like be having them fuck like rabbits at his parent’s place WHILE HES 15 !!!! and his parents are just like “carry on!” i just can’t, i can’t wrap my head around it.

y’all think rape is ok, y’all think sexual assault is ok, y’all think stalking and pedophila is ok, y’all think stockholm syndrome is ok, y’all think rape leading to pregnancy is ok but that only applies to miles in your logic? it really just blows me away like y’all really treat miles like trash, like shit. y’all really just have blown my mind.

i’m really thinkin that y’all only like to write miles this way because it goes back to the slave master mentality which was that black people (mostly black women) were hypersexual and wanted to be raped and breed without consent because we just couldn’t control our sexual urges. like we’re just fucking animals to y’all. it really shocks me because i’ve known people who have treated me less than human but treating a fictional character less than a human AND writing AND drawing him being raped and impregnated, that just scares me really.

it really scares me because these people are out in the real world, probably wanting to make these weird ass fetishes a reality for them. like they’d probably try and go out n find somebody that looks like me to SA and rape because “oh they HAVE to like it because they’re sexual animals, they HAVE to have sex, it’s in their DNA!!!” it really just frightens me but ofc nobody gives a shit.

because it’s not actually effecting them as most atsv fans are white fandom police who probably also like this stuff. it just really makes me sick because what if somebody tries to do that to me? how would my family treat me? would they kick me out? ridicule me? make me an unspeakable topic at family dinners? it just really makes me wanna cry because y’all are doing this to a boy, a 15 year old fictional boy. y’all are literally treating him so poorly that i honestly feel that’s how you’d treat black people in real life.

like we just people to rape and that justification is “well, they liked it!” or “they’re sexual people, of course they’d love to have sex with me!” it just really saddens me because y’all be the same ones talkin bout slavery was so long ago but still participate and support its severely HARMFUL ideals, it makes me scared honestly.

like actually scared for my life.

#cade’s things #cade’s thoughts 💭#anti flowefang #anti proship #tw rape #tw sa mention #tw rape mention #tw proship #tw pedophila mention

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issahanko · 3 months

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How to erase a bad bad weekend

How to erase a bad bad weekend, a bad memory, a bad experience, a bad conversation…

The memories keep flashing in my mind like a bad taste that keeps coming and going.

So many feelings, so hard to deal with and I feel so stupid not being able to just pass to the next thing. So here I am writing my heavy heart, I’m hoping it can maybe help.

As I start this text, I realize that maybe this could be a funny story, or maybe, my gentle reader will relate to me, and we could cry together.

I was urgently in need of a bit of money. I had just finished another diploma in December, and I found myself looking for an urgent job, it had been one month and a half and nothing.

Maybe because January and February are dead for job hunting… I told myself and everyone else around me to feel better, I have to be patient, I said in a very loud voice, maybe trying to convince myself to be patient, and it was not working…

My friend, which is in a similar situation calls me and says: Urgently! I have to know if you want a job! they pay cash! it’s from Friday to Sunday!

I said yes, of course! I trust her, she’s a hustler… I really need some money right now.

What we have to do in this modern world to have some money, in this economy, in this crisis, in this unemployed situation… could be called slavery, but let’s leave this subject for later.

I was supposed to sell bike clothes, plus triathlon and running clothes.

The guy made us come on Thursday to explain how this will be done during the weekend, although Thursday was not a paid time. My friend had to do 40 minutes of metro and 15 walking from her place to the job place, where we were going to work. But the guy wanted us to come on Thursday. He also wanted us to come an hour before the opening without being paid, although we said yes, it never happened.

So the guy’s name was Steve… Steve? What kind of name is that?

Hi, my name is Steve (pronounced Stif)… I wonder what you imagine with that name.

It was the opposite of the Steven Universe character. Zero charisma, he had a grim aura around him, when I remember him, I picture him wearing dirty clothes, a dirty face, dirty soul, Steve without an n.

This guy had a very bad looking silhouette, just imagine a bald, bad shaved, red eyed looking guy, with a beer belly and yellow teeth whenever he smiled, which was a rare occasion, or maybe he just smiled at moments when you are not supposed to smile, like a smile after a racist-mysoginist-homophobe comment…

This guy didn’t say hello…. As soon as he saw us, he said: do you go to the gym? Do you ride bikes? On the gym…?

Now, my friend and I are not fit at all, we have overweighted women bodies, but we take care of ourselves, we tidy ourselves, we love ourselves, we feel pretty most of the time. I admit, I got some kilos more during my degree, I did my last diploma in one year, one hell of a ride, and I’m a stress eater, so it was very easy to obtain my extra kilos. But of course, this guy didn’t see that. Maybe he wanted slim people, so the customers would feel more appealed or something. Although, he was not paying enough for a slim sales manager. He was not even paying enough for us to come on that Thursday, which we weren’t even paid.

So not a very good first start, right? I laughed it out, but my friend didn’t. I sometimes don’t understand a situation before it’s too late and my natural response is to laugh out everything. Whenever I’m nervous you will see me smiling.

Bla bla bla, biking clothes, bike accessories, biking glasses, how did you two meet?

- Oh, we were together at Uni, yeah, I was doing my ethnomusicology master at that time, oh! It’s like anthropology of music.

- So like when humans were hitting rocks one to the other and you call that music?

- jajajajaj…ja… yeah… something like that… Oh I actually have an interview in one hour, so I only have 15 minutes

Apparently, Steve didn’t like that, maybe he was planning on explaining every single item to us and take more of our free time, but I doubt it, the guy was not organized. Or maybe his natural face was of disgust…

I asked if he had business cards, he didn’t, also, the internet site that was announced on his business signs didn’t exist, he also didn’t have a special item he wanted to sell, and the sales signs advised discounts in a very so random way that it looked like a scam store.

So every time someone would ask where they could find the store… we just answered with the most vague phrase: oh! we are a mobile store… (you cannot find it anywhere) we move a lot between Ontario and Québec, oh sorry, the site doesn’t wok but you can send us an email with whatever you need, we will try our best to answer your request…

We? Well, I told myself that if maybe I got the appropriation of the store, people will believe that it was genuine, or like a family business, with Steve being our… uncle? I don’t’ know, I thought it was helpful, I was trying to help a human who didn’t deserve my trying.

Steve has a daughter though, 8 years old, she was on his 2000 model phone wallpaper. Poor girl with a father like that. Just, let me tell you the story. The guy hooked up with a woman 25 years younger than him, the problem is, he said it as if he was proud of it. He’s 62 yeas old… Steve is a 62-year-old father… of an 8 year old daughter. Oh! But her daughter is a flirt! She is in the boy’s hockey team, because she is too good to be in the girls’ hockey team and she likes to flirt with the boys…

I don’t know what is more disgusting, the fact that he thinks she flirts at that age, the fact that he is proud of his daughter being a flirt, or the fact that he is telling me this.

Pure disgust. Maybe I should add “rapist” to the list of adjectives I will describe him with. I know maybe some of you would feel sorry of him being so old and working in this hard work line, but my disgust is bigger than my sorrow.

And also, the conversation about his daughter started because he fucking asked me if I WAS SINGLE

FUCKING STEVE AND HIS FUCKING STORE

- Oh! Yeah, I have a partner and we are married.

- So like… are you lesbian?

(Shall I just send this guy to hell….?)

…..

- Well I consider myself bisexual and I’m married to a non-binary person. But you know this is really not important…

- You young people, your generation is so welcoming to this kind of stuff, I don’t know any of this things, so what is bisexual and what is non-binary

(Shall I just send this guy to hell….?)

-Well, bisexual is that you are attracted to a person regardless of their gender

- Well that is convenient

(Shall I just send this guy to hell….?)

-jajajaj… I am attracted to all the genders, not only one… and non-binary is that the person doesn’t feel like they belong to only one gender.

- so like a mix ?

- I mean there are people who are genderfluid, so they can feel one day one gender or non at all. And I feel that a bisexual with a non-binary is a perfect romantic alliance.

- So all that stuff exist, huh? Your generation is so different than mine

-oh! you have a costumer behind you

…..

The conditions to this job were just disastrous, we couldn’t sit (no chairs anywhere), we couldn’t just stand (because it is aggressive, the customer will not approach you if you just stand there, just try to scan the clothes, you can even check the tags so you can learn the technical terms… hey remember when I told to not just stand there…?), we couldn’t chat (I don’t want you to talk to each other, it shows to the customers you are not serious), and we only had 30 minutes of break to eat something, also we had bathroom breaks, which we tried to extend to the maximum and to distribute along the day. I really just wanted for this job to end.

But the worst of all was, that we had to deal with fucking Steve, not only his conversations were awful and the least interesting in the entire history of stories, but also he used to tap my back whenever there was a customer that he wanted me to attend. I wish to erase the memory of his fucking hand touching my back for those 2 seconds, he did it 6 times during the weekend. I wish to erase all of this, all this bad bad weekend, but specially he touching my sacred body with his filthy hands.

Every day that passed was harder than the previous one. Everyday Steve had to fucking complain that he was not making enough money, that his minimum was not attaint. Oh! He also had these stupid comments about us like:

- you are doing good… for beginners

- If you did some kind of sport, I’m sure you would have had more technical information to give to the clients, we would have made more sales

- It’s a shame you don’t know anything about bikes

And whenever we were letting a customer go, he would come and say: what was the problem, what did they wanted? (whatever answer you want to insert) ugh, next time send them to me. Or. Ugh you should have said this/that. You can also finish your sale with: what else are you looking for? Or what brought you to the Montreal’s Bike Convention?

Or whatever annoying phrase about any annoying sales topic or bike topic you could imagine.

Also, I forgot to mention, the main reason why he engaged us was so that we could speak in French to the clients. ‘Cause his sorry ass can only take one language in his stupid brain, the language of racist-mysoginist-homophobe-rapist white English. The frustrating part was when he started to explain to his customers:

- I engaged French girls so they can talk in French with the customers

First off, we are not in France you asshole, second, we are NOT FRENCH YOU FUCKING IDIOT, third, could you be more condescending you fucking pig?

And this is the whole point of this stupid experience. He did never ever said thank you, never, not even when we worked packing his stuff (that usually sales people don’t do) or pushing his merchandise on the cart to his truck, or when we worked for 30 extra minutes to help him pack his shit, or when his shit got all over the floor when he was pushing his cart down the ramp and was blocking the cart ramp and we helped him put his shit back to the cart and truck. And the more things went to hell, the more the guy was aggressive and screaming at us if we didn’t do things the way he wanted to be done…

Like: I didn’t tell you to do that! I asked you to put this thing in this box, not on that box!

- I told you first the wheels then the bars!

- No! Don’t put that there!

- oh… could you please push the cart to my truck?

And then, he almost didn’t pay us… or he was hoping we don’t do the math correctly so that he could pay us less than what he owed us…

- Girl, let’s count together because I’m getting stressed and can’t count

- No! Don’t count together, she’s already lost, gimme that… I’ll count for you!

Then… why am I saying he’s racist? My gentle reader may ask… Well, we had a black customer that asked if he could separate some clothes for him, he was going to do the convention tour and then get back to trying the clothes.

- you shouldn’t separate it for him, he’s not coming back, I know his kind

HIS WHAT NOW???

- Oh I meant that the convention is almost closing… I don’t think he will be back

And then he proceeded to tell me the most boring racist story of how one of his bosses in 1978 was racist, not like him. His boss didn’t believe a black successful woman was going to buy an expensive bag. Well fucking Steve didn’t believe a black customer was going to buy a fucking biking jersey that was so old as fucking Steve, all his clothes were shit actually. Well, the customer came and he bought the jersey.

A little girl was hanging around the convention during Saturday and Sunday and asked me and my friend if the clothes we were selling were used. It really felt like some kind of sport thrift store, all the clothes had the hangers sun marks, they were so old and used and so low quality that even with his fucking thin sales managers, he wouldn’t have attaint the fucking minimum that he wanted.

But lastly, we finished the job, we got our pay, we got out of that place, we left the old geezer behind, and my friend and I were left feeling miserable. We called our spouses, to reassure them we were alive, that we got paid, that we were going home. And then all the misery came to our bodies. My feet were hurting, but also my pride. And she started saying why should we go through this, why should anyone go through this. Why after all that we studied, after all that we travelled, after all that we have learnt, why do we have to take this kind of jobs, with this kind of guy in this kind of country. Why has the life treated us so unfairly… what have I done so wrong for me to be found in a situation like this. Why have all my studies done nothing for me. Why do I have to kill my feet and my pride to get a bit of cash… I’m an artist, I wish to create, to be happy, to give something to this cruel cruel world. But right now, I feel just miserable, as if my life had absolutely no meaning. As if I was born with the wrong feet, in the wrong time, the wrong place. Maybe if I was white, maybe if I was rich, maybe if I had picked fucking finance as my career. Just, maybe if I have had a bit more of luck.

But hélas, I’m here, right now, and the only thing that calms me down is writing and hoping to share this with you, my gentle reader.

Yesterday I had nightmares, and then I had a panic attack, and then I was all tears. But my partner was there, to tell me everything was going to be alright, that I will never see fucking Steve again in my life. And with the money I made, I can pay some bills.

Although the next day I still had flashes of this bad bad weekend, I still heard fucking Steve’s voice in my head… I had to pass to another thing, another project made with love, it was another day, a sunny one. And the problem is, I’m so desperate that I’m sure I will do it again, because I need the extra cash right now.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope you never cross a fucking Steve in your life. And I hope you will be happy, even if it’s only for an hour during the day. I hope the struggling times will pass fast. I hope you get to do art in your life, it’s the only savior, in this chaotic world.

#writing #writetblr #writers of tumblr #ranting #artist #montreal #fucking steve #writers on tumblr #writblr #writeblr #please read my story #I promise you won't regret #drama #bisexual life

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beardedmrbean · 1 month

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You taking 22 hours to answer that anon is fine. Hell I would be fine if it took 10 years as you had a family matter to attend to

Now another black thing https://x.com/monstereagle91/status/1782124996111847729?s=46

Okay let me use my assassin Yasuke ideas vs the usual modern black characters are written

Actually it came from early access games when they did colonial thus slavery. In ac black flag your first quartermaster is a runaway slave turn pirate named Adewale who you meet when before you escape the doomed treasure fleet

Oh yeah the ship in the game is supposed to be the theorize ship that escape the storm.

Now Adewale enjoyed the pirate life, but as stated that he never had the same joy as the other golden age pirates and during the story he does stumble upon the assassins and templar because of his captain Edward did as well….well more because he stumbled upon a traitorous master assassin and accidentally gave away the West Indies brotherhood bases.

Ugh sorry adhd. But Edward and Adewale had a fallout, Edward eventually stop his foolish chase to become rich after most of his pirates friends did and properly join the brotherhood like Adewale did.

Now there are standalone dlc called freedom cry where Adewale ends up on Saint Domingo and oh boy they NO problem showing the cruelty of slavery as much they could in a 2013 game even in the database. But there was no Templars involved in the running colony. As that did not matter for freedom cry story show that the assassin brotherhood main cause is to fight for the freedom for all humans.

So yes Adwale played the seeds of the Haitian revolution. Though it was established in the psp game ac liberation that the Saint Domingo assassins were radical and François Mackandal was a extremist that took a twisted view on the brotherhood which lead to the 1751 port au prince earthquake

Sorry for the set up, earlier in the game Edward asked Adewale if there was any place he wanted to go back to. Because at the end of the day Edward was to have enough wealth to tell his father in law to piss off.

Who he later learned was a Templar who let his daughter/Edward first wife die from a fever. No wonder Eddy took care of him after going back to Britain

Ah, I feel like I’m a Tolkien lore detour. But Adewale mention he had no place to go back to and the jackdaw for the time being was his home.

Now to Yasuke, it stated that the devs did change his past a bit. Where he was the only survivor on a slave ship where everyone, including his lover, was killed. And in he eventually ends up under Oda and began a samurai apprenticeship

Iirc, he did have his own house and had a servant. So I think it very likely he would have become the first foreign samurai if not for the hojo incident

What I have a nunace approach with him.

Also him being an unknown factor to the Templars, as Akechi told then to send Yasuke to goa India, for a bit.

And ac like to do parallels, so it very likely the Japanese brotherhood will be fractured just like how Japan went back to civil war and it up naeo and Yasuke busy rebuilt it

But if I was a head writer on red, I wouldn’t Yasuke as a black ™️ character. I would writer an immigrant who want to protect his new home. Of course I would tackle the whole no ganjin law the Tokugawa set up (though I have a HUGE hunch William Adam is going to join or be ally of the brotherhood to go between Japan and other countries)

But I using universal themes, like coming from nowhere, adapting to a new place. Calling it your new home

The issues when modern black ™️ characters is that activists presume that no one else had slavery ancestry, being oppressed or fucked over by the government

I mean just about everyone did, but no one cling onto the past. Or lionizing their og oppressors or what black Americans did why the Dahomey because they have the same skintone

Wait I heard Indians did with the Mughals….but they been fighting against the lionization the Mughals recently

Sorry I just point out how modern writers treat black people like aliens vs humans

I know you're good I still like to be prompt if I can, had to pop out real quick last night so this one is delayed too now, lol.

ya this is gonna confuse people.

story starting Oh yeah the ship in the game is supposed to be the theorize ship that escape the storm.

Kinda how it worked IRL for William Addams

Oopsie

Ugh sorry adhd. But Edward and Adewale had a fallout, Edward eventually stop his foolish chase to become rich after most of his pirates friends did and properly join the brotherhood like Adewale did.

FMA time, hopefully without Nina and Alexander this time

I need to not do this tired because I saw "François Mackandal" and I was gonna say there's something fishy about him because I thought his last name was Mackerel

That does not say "Alphonse" I'm dumb, dyslexia and tired reading don't mix so I'll do the rest in the morning, but leave all that so everyone can have a hearty laugh.

But given he was in Japan for 3 years prior to him disappearing from records. I think they are going with a “foreigner who want to protect his new home” as the basic for his desire to unify Japan in red story. Also him being an unknown factor to the Templars, as Akechi told then to send Yasuke to goa India, for a bit. And ac like to do parallels, so it very likely the Japanese brotherhood will be fractured just like how Japan went back to civil war and it up naeo and Yasuke busy rebuilt it

I like this and the stuff before too, nice thing about historical fiction, even with real people, is you can fiddle with details.

I could see people getting ticked off if he's not tokenized, lot of anti-racists get mad if you don't play to stereotypes for some reason.

The issues when modern black ™️ characters is that activists presume that no one else had slavery ancestry, being oppressed or fucked over by the government I mean just about everyone did, but no one cling onto the past. Or lionizing their og oppressors or what black Americans did why the Dahomey because they have the same skintone Wait I heard Indians did with the Mughals….but they been fighting against the lionization the Mughals recently

Ya pretty much everyone did in one form or another, slavery is a pretty solid historical thing right up till the 1800's when some people decided that should stop.

Sorry I just point out how modern writers treat black people like aliens vs humans

Part of that is concern over being "canceled" for writing just the wrong thing, which is one of the big reasons it's all gotten to where it is now.

And the audience is also berated if they opt to not consume something because the only reason could be that they're racist.

Racism is killing creativity, but not the kind of racism people want to talk about.

#zoomer huey anon

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theintoccabile · 11 months

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I’m so tired of shows that use something truly horrific as a mere backdrop

Like Sugar Apple Fairy Tale. The main character wants to become a master artisan. She overcomes many obstacles! There is also romance. Cool right. Oh yeah there is also slavery. Like basically every human she meets at the very least condones slavery. Like I couldn’t care less about her struggles to become a Silver Sugar Master, just team up with some fairies and help them stab people. but nah it’s just a backdrop and I’m supposed to buy at least some of those slave owners are decent people or something lmao okay bye

Now I’ve started watching The Most Heritical Last Boss Queen, another reincarnated as the villainess show which is a trope I’m a sucker for. Original villainess was ridiculously evil. Wild. Anyway protagonist’s kindly father literally kidnaps/forcibly buys a kid to become a member of the royal family Puts him in chains so he can’t telport away until he signs a magical contract. And while this kid cries his eyes out that protagonist made it possible to get a letter form his mother, said kindly father stands in the background, smiling kindly. Dude this kid is having a literal breakdown here about a single letter from his mom you kidnapped him from?? And so far we just get the protagonist sympathizing with this kid and trying to help but not a single second of, “so yeah my dad is evil actually”

Like??? I do not get this stuff I just do not understand

#slavery mention/#child abuse mention /#sugar apple fairy tale #the most heretical last boss queen: from villainess to savior #when you depict something horrible... then acknowlege the people who do it are horrible??#you can let them get away with it if you want but this is WILD.#it's just wanting to have your cake and eat it too in the most obnoxius way

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viridiave · 2 years

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Octopath and loose ends

so as much as I want these travelers to just have a happy ending and live peacefully after everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING)

there are. several things. that I feel like in-universe they really need to address and it has been driving me nuts for weeks

oh yeah MASSIVE spoilers btw so proceed with caution it’s gonna be a long ride of a LOT of loose ends that I REALLY want to see get addressed by the characters in some form

OPHILIA’S TALE - Just. Ophilia- you know. the Flamebearer.- was drugged in Chapter 3 by her sister after the passing of Archbishop Josef. After the Bishop of Goldshore's daughter was fucking kidnapped by cultists. - And it turns out the fucking Bishop didn't fall ill he was fucking murdered and oh my god an investigation needs to be fucking launched - Speaking of investigation- Wispermill in its entirety was almost wiped out by a cult led by some merchant they had in the Lionel Consortium. Whatever the hell that is.

CYRUS’S TALE - Quarrycrest and the blood rituals in the sewers. Cyrus has also killed the culprit, by the way. In self-defense, so it's all good- but there were fucking blood rituals happening in the fucking sewers man what- - sO YOU WOULD THINK THAT CYRUS KILLING HIS EMPLOYER AND HIS ASSITANT WOULD LET HIM GET OFF SCOTT-FREE. TO BE FAIR, IT WAS ALL IN SELF-DEFENSE, BUT THERE IS NO WAY THEY AREN'T INVESTIGATING THIS. ESPECIALLY SINCE THERESE IS A NOBLEWOMAN RELATED TO THE ROYAL FAMILY. SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK. - And there's no way that Cyrus is going to keep his mouth shut over the tomes in the Ruins of Eld. Somehow I don't doubt that there's going to be messy politics surrounding those books given that apparently they don't have a fucking printing press yet.

TRESSA’S TALE - So Quarrycrest doesn't just have a fucking kidnapping problem, but it also has economic problems- which doesn't really sound good when most of the town's economy hinges on the provisions that the person who owned that territory gets sent packing by a tiny merchant. It's great that they don't have someone who deals in slavery anymore but there ain't no way people aren't freaking out over this sudden lack of management. - The Grandport Merchant's Fair was infiltrated by Obsidians. I don't have any real idea how much of a problem this really is, but dang a person could have died that day in the sewers so

OLBERIC’S TALE - Erhardt. Just… Erhardt. The man. Is an actual war criminal. Who has committed the highest form of treason. The guy killed his king and was directly responsible in some way for the fall of an entire Kingdom. And you're gonna tell me??? He's not gonna get charged??? For any of this??? Erhardt I love you but wHAT THE FUCK MAN- - Riverford had public burnings at the stake and this has been going on for several years- long enough that the town got fed up with it and finally got enough ball to start a revolution. A whole-ass revolution that the Unbending Blade- who is alive and has been walking around and should be legally dead at this point and is also the wINNER OF A WELL-KNOWN TOURNAMENT IN VICTOR'S HOLLOW- has assisted in, alongside the Blazing Blade who may I remind people has committed fucking REGICIDE on WERNER'S ORDERS

PRIMROSE’S TALE - Primrose's entire kill quest is her taking down a whole-ass criminal organization that has been terrorizing the continent for presumably decades. This should be investigated for more reasons than just her charges of first-degree murder. - Stillsnow??? Should really be investigated??? Because what the fuck the Obsidian Manse is a whole fucking human trafficking site??? And the entire town is privy to this information?? IT'S SO CLOSE TO FLAMESGRACE HOW MUCH BALL DO THEY HAVE TO KEEP UP THIS CHARADE - Man if Noblecourt wasn't already such a political mess then it'd be an even worse mess by the time Primrose leaves it- the Obsidians may be shitty but it's implied that they were pretty much running Noblecourt. There's gotta be SOME form of anarchy going down in that city even if it's ultimately better off without the Obsidians running the show - AND SPEAKING OF RUNNING SHOWS THERE'S EVERHOLD AND IT'S NOT LIKE SIMEON'S BODY TURNED TO DUST AFTER THE ENTIRE THING LIKE MATTIAS'S HAD AKSJAKSLAS

ALFYN’S TALE - Surprisingly clean but Goldshore has got to be extra wary of passing apothecaries ever since Vanessa came and fucked them up with the Gaborra Evergreen - Alfyn himself is kind of sus because what even is slumberthorn that sounds like a hell of a sedative- aND WHY DOES HE JUST CASUALLY HAVE SOMETHING LIKE THAT

THERION’S TALE - sO NOT ONLY IS WELLSPRING HOME TO AND DEPENDENT ON A WAR CRIMINAL'S PROTECTION BUT THEY ALSO HAVE A BLACK MARKET. EITHER BALE AND ERHARDT ARE JUST CONSTANTLY DRUNK OR THEY LEGITIMATELY HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE THAT THIS MARKET EXISTS. OR MAYBE IT WAS CUZ OF THE LIZARDMEN BEING REALLY CONVENIENT DISTRACTIONS??? EITHER WAY THIS MARKET NEEDS TO BE INVESTIGATED JESUS CHRIST - So if Darius is a formal lord of Northreach. Shouldn't. People be investigating his death. Or at least his disappearance. Namely at the hands of the guy that has actively been a thorn in his side and has been featured in Wanted posters. Bro-

H'AANIT’S TALE - Surprisingly H'aanit's tale is the most legal. She's literally on a church-sanctioned hunt so pretty much everything she does in her tale is legal. I mean excluding the siccing of various monsters against her obstacles, her record is just clean as fuck and that amazes me.

POST-GAME - SO IS NO ONE GOING TO TALK ABOUT GALDERA AFTER THE FACT??? THIS SOUNDS??? LIKE A VERY IMPORTANT THING TO TALK ABOUT WITH EVERYONE IN THE CONTINENT? THERE IS NO WAY THAT THE GATE OF FINIS IS GOING TO BE KEPT A SECRET ESPECIALLY IF IT CONTAINS A THREAT LIKE GALDERA INSIDE OF IT, EVEN IF RIGHT NOW THERE'S NO FEASIBLE WAY FOR HIM TO BE RELEASED. THIS WAS WHY THE KINGDOM OF HORNBURG FELL FOR GOD'S SAKE. - AND KIT- WHERE THE HELL DOES KIT GO??? AFTER HIS FUCKING BLOODLINE HAS BEEN SHOWN TO BE CAPABLE OF RELEASING WHAT IS ESSENTIALLY SATAN UPON THE WORLD??? HE'S ALSO THE ONLY REMAINING CROSSFORD SO IS HE JUST BANNED FROM HAVING KIDS SINCE THAT'D JUST MEAN MORE POTENTIAL KEYS TO UNLOCK THE GATE WITH???

#octopath traveler #octopath #8path #vir rambles about octopath yet again #THE POSTGAME IMPLICATIONS #OF EVERYTHING #I MEAN DON'T GET ME WRONG THEY ALL DESERVE TO LIVE HAPPILY AFTER GALDERA #BUT SOME OF THESE THINGS ARE JUST #THEY NEED TO BE QUESTIONED AT LEAST #octopath spoilers #spoilers for pretty much every chapter after 1

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ertrunkenerwassergeist · 11 months

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I finally finished Final Fantasy XVI

Holy shit that game was good. And that ending. I cried. Multiple times.

After the game was done I had to go for a walk to get over the ache in my chest. It’s hot as balls outside, but thankfully I did not melt into a puddle. Heat aside, it helped me get some thoughts in order.

The characters, the plot, the music and the world will live in my brain rent free for a long, long time. (Cid for favourite character, in case anyone was wondering.)

There was emotional weight behind every character.

The world feels lived in and crowded. As much as I love FFXV, one of the criticisms I have towards that game is that its world feels woefully underpopulated. Here, in FFXVI, this was very much not so. There are people and it feels like their decisions have weight. It’s not just the protagonists and the antagonists, but also the secondary and tertiary characters.

I’m a sucker for political fantasy stories, and this one absolutely hit the sweet spot for me. In its politics it made sense to me. The fight for resources, the religious aspects, the very human pride that can make everything so much worse.

And the slavery, well...

This might actually deserve its own post, but imo it lent everything an extra devious note that you couldn’t distinguish a non-magical human from a bearer (that is the English word, right? I played the game in German), if the latter didn’t have a brand on their cheek. Humans can be cruel to each other no matter how they look like.

Bearers are objectified, not considered human. And with objects you can do what you want. They don’t feel pain, and when one breaks, you can get another. Logic like that is scary, not only because of its cruelty, but also because of how plausible it can be. In the sense that it has happened before in history.

I really appreciate it that this story is, in large part, a tale against this type of thinking. Against slavery, against greed and senseless pride.

It’s about learning understanding and appreciating the world around you.

The only thing that missed its mark a bit imo, is that by the end of it all, magic is gone. I can see the sense behind it, a little bit, but I don’t like it.

Clive associates magic with greed and pain. His trauma has in large part to do with magic. He was born a bearer and hated by his mother for it, he thought a Domini murdered his brother in cold blood and was branded himself soon after, to be pressed into military service for 13 years. Only then to learn that his brother’s murderer was himself. All of that, all that pain and misery, because of magic.

So yes, I can see why Clive would think humanity would be better off without magic.

But

Wouldn’t it have been more impactful, if the people had learned to use magic responsibly, that it isn’t just an easy shortcut? What if they had found the wonder that lies in magic?

That would have gone against everything Ultima thought magic was.

Imo erasing magic is an easy cop out, but that might also be fit for a post of its own.

And it also invalidates the development the people of Valisthea went through. As well as Lubor’s whole quest line. Which honestly frustrates me a bit.

Oh yeah. The side quests are amazing. I did every single one and many build on one another into whole mini quest lines. The stories they tell make the world so much richer.

All in all, I love this game. It’s not perfect. But then again, nothing ever is.

#ffxvi #geist plays ffxvi #ffxvi spoilers #I FINISHED IT #I'm more than one emotion #this got long #my thoughts are a mess #this is all over the place #and by no means comprehensive #I don't think I articulated some of this very well #I have so many thoughts #long post #the ending was very emotional #but it also frustrated me #will I be writing fanfiction for this?#y'all bet I will #there's so many things I could talk about with this game #is there someone out there I can yell with?

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boku-no-anime-phase · 10 months

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Sugar Apple Fairy Tale first season review

(with apologies to the friend who recommended this to me, for thinking way too hard about this piece of media like I do everything. Sorry friend. I'm incapable of being a casual enjoyer.)

Spoilers for Sugar Apple Fairy Tale S1 upcoming, as well as discussion of topics like sexism, discrimination and slavery.

SAFT follows Ann Halford, an aspiring sugar artist, as she enters sugar sculpture competitions, takes freelance work with unreasonable clients who don't know what they want, trains under sugar sculpture masters, and deals with politics and sexism in the workplace. Oh yeah, and falls in love with her man-sized gothboy fairy friend.

I honestly don't even know where to start with this show 😂

Let's talk plot. When I watch anime, I expect to have to swallow some wild stuff in the first episode to establish the premise. My Hero Academia said "suddenly everyone got powers, idk how." Fruits Basket said, "these boys turn into animals (literally) when a girl touches them." Once you get past the wild initial premise, you can pretty much sit back and enjoy the show. And those shows are kinda classic! So having a ridiculous premise doesn't mean you can't have a great show (especially in the case of FB, which has an absolutely absurd premise, but is a phenomenal and moving show once you accept that and immerse yourself).

With SAFT, I felt like every episode I had to accept some new aspect of the world that was difficult to swallow. I don't think it ever explained why sugar and sugar sculptures are so culturally important to this kingdom. That wouldn't have been an issue as long as they established how important sugar sculptures actually were - I was surprised over and over again by minor characters' investment in the over-arching plot. 🤷 The storytelling also didn't feel internally consistent. Certain plot beats or themes were introduced like halfway through the season, where they definitely should have come up before. And certain plot points definitely felt contrived - characters coming up with solutions to problems that felt like they could have been solved another way.

It's not like I didn't have a good time watching this show - I did - but also I'm cursed to never just enjoy something, I have to Actually Think About It.

On that topic, let's talk about themes.

This show seemed like it had a few thoughts about sexism, slavery, and minorities... But I don't feel like it really committed and delivered its message, at least in the first season.

Fairies in this are often enslaved to humans and at the beginning we see some distrust from fairies directed towards Ann because of this dynamic, which I thought was interesting; but she quickly "proved herself" as an ally and won their trust.

The other messaging about fairy slavery is super mixed. Ann is against it and frees the only fairy she buys as soon as she is able (actually before it's even feasible but whatever). Another character we meet is a benevolent master to a fairy who is only "technically" enslaved - he could claim his freedom at any time, but doesn't because he enjoys his situation (😬). In another situation, an enslaved fairy is in love with her master. But then we meet another character who treats fairies, including free fairies, as subhuman, and the show highlights how she treats fairies differently than humans because she looks down on them, and that's bad. But it doesn't seem to make a consistent moral stand on the slavery of fairies, and often casts humans who "own" fairies in a sympathetic light, or paints the relationship between the human master and enslaved fairy as a mutually-agreed-upon, mutually beneficial thing. That made me pretty uncomfortable. It seems like the show wanted to really grapple with slavery as a topic, but couldn't stick the landing.

Also, towards the end of the season we find out that female sugar artists are extremely rare (feels like this should have come up earlier tbh!), and the show introduces ¿¿Christianity?? Or like a religion that seems to borrow really heavily from Christian creation myths and their sexist undertones? Anyway. Ann experiences a lot of gendered discrimination at this point. It seems like a weird time to introduce such an important theme, but 🤷 it also feels like it wants to grapple with sexism as a topic, but imo it fumbles there too - sexism is a factor in the harassment Ann experiences, but it's not really the thing that ultimately puts her in trouble. Also around this time, the show's second significant female character is introduced, and she actually fits a bunch of sexist stereotypes so it feels like the show shot itself in the foot.

The way the season ended, it seems like slavery is going to be an ongoing Big Topic, but I'm concerned that it's going to be a plot point rather than something to be truly grappled with and dealt with on a moral plane. If I were gonna make a prediction, I'd say S2 will be mostly concerned with slavery in the sense that Ann will be upset that Challe is serving someone else, and the orders his new master gives him will hurt Ann's feelings bc she thinks he's doing it because he wants to. That feels like an icky way to talk about slavery, to me. I could be wrong though (let's hope so).

I don't want to be one of those moral purists that's like, "shows shouldn't depict XYZ", but I do think it's kind of irresponsible to depict stuff like chattel slavery without giving it adequate moral consideration, and this show just... Doesn't seem like it's the type of show to spend a lot of time challenging the morals of something. Maybe S2 will be surprising but 🤷 I also recognize that this is Japanese media and idk what their history is with slavery but maybe it's not such a sensitive topic there. I'm not sure.

Last thing, which is more of a generalized anime gripe - the main character is 15 (which she takes care to inform us is the age of legal majority in her country). She's in love with a 100+yo. WHY 💀 they could have at least made her an adult - 3-4 years is not that different! Why is it always teenage girls in love with powerful immortals?

All in all, it's a fun brainless show with a cute developing interspecies romance if that's your thing. I can't turn off my brain and I also do intersectional feminist analysis here so here ya go 😅

Did you watch it? What did you think? How is S2 so far? I don't know how to end this post help

#sugar apple fairy tale #saft #anime #anime analysis #anime review #bnap anime review

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agirlwithachakram · 2 years

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Fallout DLCs rated from worst to best

The Pitt. It’s just not very fun, the reward is useful but kind of a pain to actually collect, and while you don’t have to literally kill a baby to end slavery, kidnapping a baby is in the same ballpark. Look, I get what they were going for. There are horrors in the world and sometimes you don’t get to fight them righteously. Fine. But murdering a baby’s parents and kidnapping her for medical research is a little too on the nose, and there’s nothing in the writing that makes this interesting. It kind of feels like Marvel making a leftist villain and then having them murder civilians for no reason but red scare propaganda. Also, it suffers from the same problem as Nuka World: Once you decide not to work with slavers, your quest becomes to start shooting all these named NPCs with no options for surrender or takeover or any other interesting way to end the slavery.

Broken Steel. It’s fine. I’m glad Sara’s up and at ‘em. I’m glad I didn’t die for no reason. Yay fighting Enclave with a tesla cannon. Wheeee.

Mothership Zeta. When I’m not playing it, I’m like “oh do I really wanna go do that?” but when I AM playing it I’m like oh FUCK yeah. I love the sneaking and punching and getting alien guns and spacewalking and zapping another alien ship with a gun and the fucked up ageless Claudia kid, whatever her name is. And the cowboy! And poor medic guy from Anchorage. and of course Somah.

Point Lookout. I mostly enjoy playing this one in spite of the MASSIVE liberties taken with the geography. The Calvert Mansion is nowhere near the western shore (the MD peninsula in the Chesapeake between VA and the eastern shore peninsula), it’s in the DC metro area, two hours away! But, sure. I’ll take the Ark and Dove as the presby church up in Odenton. I’ll even take the military camp as Lexington Park. Whatever. I like the scavenger hunt with the Chinese spy, I like the punga fruit vault boy trip--fantastic bit of madness it is--I like the ridiculous fight with the ghoul and the brain, I like the fucked up soil testing quest, and I like the nature of it all. Love me a good expansive DLC map. But. There is a huge but. I do not like the creepers. I think it’s exceptionally gross to make monsters that are Deliverance type “what if humans were so inbred they weren’t human anymore” beings. Sure, they say they’re mutated, but come on. We all know what they’re doing. Still, I leave it for last because other than that, it’s the most fun one.

Operation: Anchorage. This one shouldn’t be as fun as it is. I think it’s just nice to get an ammo drop video game style where they change how it works inside the game because your character is playing a game. I like how you can fuck with the army guys by saying it’s a simulation. And of course I love the stealth suit. But mostly I love sniping invisible soldiers.

Contraptions Workshop. Is this fun? Can you actually do anything with this?

Wasteland Workshop. Do I want any of this stuff? What’s the point?

Nuka World. Yeah, it’s cool I guess. I enjoy running around the places, I like the Tarzan dude with his...ghoul? synth? gorilla buddies. I do not like the thing where in order to avoid killing or hurting innocents, you have to just start blasting bad guys. It’s fine. It’s not fun to take them all out and you pretty much have to turn on god mode to do it. Maybe you’re supposed to spread them all out at various settlements before killing them? But then you’ll piss off my boy Preston Garvey! And like! It’s one thing to work with “bad guys” but these aren’t fun villains, they’re slavers. So while NW has a lot of good content, it’s overshadowed by the fact that you have to do a LOT of work to liberate the place.

Vault-Tec Workshop. Oh, Ted. What a good dude. I love pissing off the overseer so much she leaves. I love cleaning up the place. I have never put a real vault in.

Automatron. What can I say? It’s cute! The characters are cute. It’s all just terribly charming.

Far Harbor. Aw yeah. The good one and it ain’t even close. Nick’s brother! The weird memories! The giant hermit crab! Turning the children of atom’s sprayer into a cleanser. The TWIST. And it’s a cool-ass location.

Honest Hearts. NGL, this one is BEAUTIFUL. If it weren’t racist, it would be the best one. But it is, a lot, so it’s the worst. I didn’t initially think we were meant to think of the Sorrows and the Dead Horses and White Legs as actual Native American tribes, but apparently the Dead Horses at least are partially descended from Navajo people. Follows Chalk and Waking Cloud have your sort of stereotypical movie Native American lilt on purpose, regardless. They have a very weird naivete that makes Daniel and Joshua clearly, um, taking up the white man’s burden. Did a Mormon write this? Not that you have to be Mormon to be this kind of racist, but as Dan and Josh are, it leaves me wondering. It’s gross that the Sorrows and Dead Horses are both leaving the major decisions to a missionary and a war criminal, random white dudes who are trying to take over leadership of their tribes. It’s just all fucked up and I don’t know why we can’t have a beautiful Zion DLC that isn’t This. Ugh.

Dead Money. It’s a good DLC, it’s just a HUGE bummer and the radio shit is so stressful. It’s nearly impossible to get down into the vault (and out of it!) without your collar killing you. It’s a huge pain and that’s why it’s my least favorite to play. Plus, I got so annoyed you couldn’t bring Christine home to Ronnie that I downloaded a mod so I could. You won’t keep the lesbians apart, Elijah! You bastard!

Lonesome Road. It’s fun but it gets to be a slog after a while. Feel like I’m checking off a list of warheads to detonate. Also Ulysses is always telling me I’m with the NCR which is funny because I ALWAYS turn on them eventually and take care of Caesar and Lanius myself.

Old World Blues. I like the talking stealth suit and the messed up appliances. I like fucking with the brains and hanging with Morbius. (it IS morbin’ time!) I like all the weird locations and the hints as to what’s next in the DLCs. I have less to say about the DLCs I like the most. Tranquility Lane fucks me UP. Oh and I like teleporting.

#fallout

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meltotheany · 1 month

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hi friends! how are you doing? i hope well! april was a really good reading month for me in terms of quantity! but quality? oh friends, we were in the trenches a little bit at the start of the month, i wont lie lol! i gave my first one star rating in years (truly years) and i still can’t believe! but we also ended the month with one of the best books i’ve read in years, so maybe we did have some balance. or maybe the book gods felt bad for me, so they gave me a boon before may reading began! but okay, let’s get into the range of the ten books that i was able to read this month! ✨ ✨ Slaying the Vampire Conqueror by Carissa Broadbent ⭐⭐ 1.0) The Serpent and the Wings of Night ★★★★ 1.5) Six Scorched Roses ★★★★ 2) The Ashes & the Star-Cursed King ★★★★ i have been loving this series so very much, and after finishing the ashes & the star-cursed king i immediately wanted more, therefore i picked this up also assuming it would be a banger like the rest of this series. oh friends, i am experiencing heartbreak as i type this mini review. i believe that this in-between story, set in this world at a different time period, was to help us learn more about the goddesses, in particular nyaxia and (view spoiler) arachessen. yet, that’s all it really did for me because i just could not get into this story, these characters, their romance, their dynamics with other characters, or anything really. this was ultimately just such a let down for me, but i will still be picking up the songbird & the heart of stone come fall! content warnings mentioned in author’s note at beginning of this book: violence, war, drug addiction. violence against children, explicit sexual situations additional trigger + content warnings i wrote down while reading: loss of a loved one, loss of a friend, cult depiction, colonization, drowning, grief, murder, death, a lot of blood depictions, captivity, body control powers, drugging, talk of the subject of rape, power imbalance dynamics / child abuse, slavery mention, extreme drug withdrawal, talk of animal death, graphic detailed mentions of eating animals ✨ Funny Story by Emily Henry ⭐⭐⭐⭐ ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley “To me, libraries have always represented the best of humanity. The way we all share knowledge and space, and… and how we find ways to look after each other. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s powerful.” this book is, ironically enough, a story about one person trying to convince another person to build a home and life in a sleepy little michigan city. but let me not forget to type that these two people’s lives have crossed because both of their significant others have decided to leave them for each other! and our main character, after being dumped the morning after her fiance’s bachelor party, has nowhere to go because she picked up her life and moved it to where she thought she would finally set up roots. so she moves in with her ex’s new girlfriend’s ex (this feels so hard to type out lol), and each chapter starts with a countdown of how many days until a fundraiser at her work, at a local library, happens and then she will be able to leave. but maybe she can actually still set up those roots after the fundraiser, but in an even healthy and happier way (filled with some good healing along the way). ❤️ full breakdown review with tw/cws HERE ✨ Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson ⭐⭐ even though i did not love this, i think i have finally recognized that i’m just not this type of horror reader. i love anything speculative, anything paranormal, but actual murders/slasher-like stories? they just don’t work for me, they have never worked for me, and this one also did not work for me. and if a sapphic cottagecore one didn’t work for me, i fear just none ever will. so i really implore you to look at other reviews if this book sounds good to you – here are some of my faves: gabby, genesee, cassidy but yeah! sapphic, cottagecore, two girls meeting at a farmers market, but somethin...

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#Book Blog #Book Blogger #Book Review #Book Reviewer #crown of midnight #Leigh Bardugo #meltotheany #nghi vo #Reading Wrap Up #Sarah J Maas #singing hills #the familiar #Throne of Glass #Wrap Up

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invested-in-your-future · 1 year

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Have you ever thought that faunus being mistreated no longer comes up because Remnant is a bad place for EVERYBODY? There are monsters everywhere...

I mean...for one I, in part, agree - Remnant SHOULD be portrayed as a bad place for a lot of different people.

It always felt like "Oh Remnant is extremely inclusive and welcoming setting" was basically used as a shield to not have to actually add people of color or LGBTQA+ or any marginalized group characters into the show because "oh you know Remnant is absolutely inclusive so they exist somewhere, you just got to imagine".

I can see parts of Remnant feeling more welcoming, like the schools for example. The Huntsmen Academies are absolutely something that SHOULD be progressive and inclusive.

But beyond that? Schnee family exists, faunus slavery exists, great war happened, characters still threw around transphobic jokes, Port still hit on an underage student, etc. Bullying exists and if Beacon is to go by, bullying is normalized. WF subplot in itself shows that world can be dangerous and dark.

And the ask is absolutely right on another fact - there ARE monsters everywhere. And that tends to shape societies in different ways. Some people will band together, some will grow more mistrustful, etc.

I also agree that discrimination can't be JUST limited to faunus. That's also correct. Because again, bigotry isn't logical. Faunus aren't discriminated because they are special or unique - they are because a subset of humanity found them appropriate to punch down against as "lesser others". Also discrimination is cyclical - if there's one thing a bigot is good at is to switch targets whenever balance of power starts to shift. And again, there are countless forms of discrimination. Grudges, social biases, classism, ableism, ageism sexism and so on and so on. And also limiting it to just "racism against Faunus" walks into an older "magical minority/ethnicity" trope that in itself is racist.

So yes, do show that the world of Remnant can be dangerous and dark and that actual progressive values and beliefs aren't a given but something worth fighting and standing up for. And that also includes showing and exploring the idea of why Faunus would be desperate enough to resort to less than "peaceful" methods at times.

Isn't that what in part this show should be about? Proving that humanity is worthy of survival in spite of it's flaws?

Yet somehow, Faunus worldbuilding conveniently disappears after walking into a wall a few times. And disappears on such an awful message too - "as long as you are a model minority and one of the good ones, racism is gone!"

So yeah. Remnant can absolutely be a dangerous place and hatred does take many shapes and forms.

SHOW IT.

But that requires actually writing the show and the setting so... It's far easier to just "dream up" generic brother gods and talking animals and have a suspiciously blue eyed blond haired white individual be the centerpiece of it all in spite of not having a show named after him.

#RWBY #RWDE

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